Acoustically driven oscillatory flow fields in a cylindrical resonator at resonance.

Generation and development of acoustic waves in an air-filled cylindrical resonator driven by a conical electro-mechanical speaker are studied experimentally and simulated numerically. The driving frequencies of the speaker are chosen such that a standing wave field is produced at each chosen frequency in the resonator. The amplitude of the generated acoustic (pressure) waves is measured along the axis of the resonator by a fast response piezo-resistive pressure transducer, while the radial distribution of the oscillatory axial velocities is measured at the corresponding velocity anti-node locations by a constant temperature hot-film anemometer. For the cases studied, the acoustic Reynolds number ranged between 20.0 and 60.0 and the flow fields were always found to be in the laminar regime. The flow field in the resonator is also simulated by a high-fidelity numerical scheme with low numerical diffusion. Formation of the standing wave and quasi-steady acoustic streaming are numerically simulated by solving the fully compressible form of the Navier-Stokes equations. The effects of the sound field intensity (i.e., input power to the speaker) and driving frequency on the standing wave field and the resultant formation process of the streaming structures are also investigated.

Experimental and numerical investigations of resonant acoustic waves in near-critical carbon dioxide.

Flow and transport induced by resonant acoustic waves in a near-critical fluid filled cylindrical enclosure is investigated both experimentally and numerically. Supercritical carbon dioxide (near the critical or the pseudo-critical states) in a confined resonator is subjected to acoustic field created by an electro-mechanical acoustic transducer and the induced pressure waves are measured by a fast response pressure field microphone. The frequency of the acoustic transducer is chosen such that the lowest acoustic mode propagates along the enclosure. For numerical simulations, a real-fluid computational fluid dynamics model representing the thermo-physical and transport properties of the supercritical fluid is considered. The simulated acoustic field in the resonator is compared with measurements. The formation of acoustic streaming structures in the highly compressible medium is revealed by time-averaging the numerical solutions over a given period. Due to diverging thermo-physical properties of supercritical fluid near the critical point, large scale oscillations are generated even for small sound field intensity. The strength of the acoustic wave field is found to be in direct relation with the thermodynamic state of the fluid. The effects of near-critical property variations and the operating pressure on the formation process of the streaming structures are also investigated. Irregular streaming patterns with significantly higher streaming velocities are observed for near-pseudo-critical states at operating pressures close to the critical pressure. However, these structures quickly re-orient to the typical Rayleigh streaming patterns with the increase operating pressure.